Lithuania

Lithuania is a unitary parliamentary republic located in Northern Europe's Baltic region, bordering Russia's Kaliningrad and Poland to the southwest, Belarus to the east, and Latvia to the north. For much of its history, it was a pagan stronghold that fought against the Germans and Russians, but found itself under the control of both nations (and Poland) from the 1500s until they gained their independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.

History
Lithuania was founded as an independent republic on 16 February 1918 as a puppet state of the German Empire, who took over the region from the Russian Empire during World War I. Lithuania's independence was not realized until 11 November 1918, when the World War I ceasefire forced the German troops to surrender. Lithuania was granted independence as a German satellite nation along with neighboring Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, and Lithuania fought a war of independence against the Soviet Union, who attempted to reclaim all of the former lands of the Russian Empire. The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia remained independent in these wars, defeating the Red Army of the USSR through guerrilla warfare by 1921. In 1923, the Lithuanian Army occupied Memel from the French postwar government after a rebellion to join the Lithuanian Prussians with the motherland.

Lithuania remained an independent country until 15 June 1940, when 500,000 Red Army troops occupied the Baltic countries without much opposition. The Soviets were driven out a year and a week later, when Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and occupied eastern Europe up to the gates of Moscow. The Lithuanian Forest Brothers fought a guerrilla war against both the Germans and Soviets, but in July 1944 Lithuania was occupied by the Soviets once more.

Lithuania was a part of the USSR as the Lithuanian SSR until 11 March 1990, when Lithuania was granted independence from the Soviets after a revolution. The new government was a unitary parliamentary republic ruled democratically from the capital of Vilnius.

Culture
In 2014, Lithuania had a population of 2,944,459 people. In 2011, a census showed that 84.1% of the population were Lithuanians, 6.6% were Poles, 5.8% Russians, 1.2% Belarusians, .5% Ukrainians, .1% Jews, .1% Tatars, .1% Germans, .1% Romani, .1% Latvians, and 1.3% others. 77% were Roman Catholic, 4.8% Orthodox, .8% Protestant, 6% nonreligious, and 10% other, including Jews.